Watershed, Seattle

by Christopher Brinckerhoff | 20 April 2025 6:00 am

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Expansive glazing contributes to a high-tech appearance on the exterior of Watershed, a seven-story, 5,639 m² (60,700 sf) mixed-use building that showcases numerous energy-efficient elements.

Weber Thompson PLLC designed the building with sustainability measures, including conserving power and water, and constructed it with responsibly sourced and salvaged materials to protect the area’s watersheds.

Mission Glass LLC installed curtainwalls, insulated glass units (IGUs), storefronts, and entrance systems. The fenestration systems’ all-aluminum framing has polyamide insulating strips, which act as thermal barriers between the framing’s exterior and interior surfaces, which reduce heat energy transfer.

Curtainwalls comprise most of the fenestration. The first two levels of Watershed have retail spaces and punched openings with IGUs. The IGUs have solar-control, low-emissivity glass, and aluminum framing systems thermally broken with stainless steel warm-edge spacers and street-level retail spaces and entrances with thermal, multi-plane storefront systems and thermal composite doors.

Kristen Scott, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, managing partner, senior principal, and head of the Workplace studio at Weber Thompson, says, “Today’s workforce wants to be in a space that supports good health, has great daylighting, and is a joy to work in.”

Weber Thompson itself is located in Watershed. “This is one of those rare opportunities to be our own best client,” Scott says. “We implemented our collaborative design approach internally, and it yielded great results.”

Watershed is in the city’s Fremont neighborhood, replacing a low-rise, underutilized industrial building. Notably, Weber Thompson designed Watershed to be certified by the city’s Living Building Pilot Program (LBPP) and aligned with the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge.

The project received many awards, including American Institute of Architects (AIA), Committee on the Environment (COTE), 2023 Top Ten Award; AIA Seattle, 2022 Honor Awards, Young Voices Selection; and National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), 2024 The Beyond Green High-Performance Building and Community Award.

Developer: Fremont Watershed Realty LLC, Seattle, a joint venture between Spear Street Capital LLC, San Francisco, Stephen C. Grey and Associates LLC, Seattle, and Hess Callahan Grey Group, Seattle
General contractor: Turner Construction Co., Seattle, turnerconstruction.com[2]
Architect: Weber Thompson PLLC, Seattle, weberthompson.com[3]
Building envelope consultant: Allana Buick and Bers Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., abbae.com[4]
Installer/fabricator: Mission Glass LLC, Tumwater, Wash., mission-glass.com
Curtainwalls/storefront systems/entrance systems: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, Dallas, obe.com[5]
Glazing: Vitro Architectural Glass, Cheswick, Pa., vitroglazings.com[6]
Insulating glass units (IGU): Hartung Glass Industries Inc., Northwestern Industries (NWI) branch, Seattle, hartung-glass.com/locations/nwi-seattle[7]
Warm-edge spacers/insulating strips: Technoform, Twinsburg, Ohio, technoform.com[8]

 

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/projects/office-mixed-use/watershed-seattle/

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